Visions of gingerbread at the Erie Canal Museum

This gingerbread isn't for eating. It's for viewing only, through Sunday (Jan. 2) at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse.

The museum's annual Gingerbread Gallery, now in its 25th year, has been open since Thanksgiving. So it's the end of the run for the handcrafted gingerbread houses, cottages, mansions, motorhomes, courthouses and more. Some constructions are coming apart at their seams held together with royal icing and fondant. Peppermint stick pillars are crumbling and candy decorations are sliding from some roofs.

A lot of work goes into gingerbread architecture. And such creativity! Necco wafers for roofing tiles, graham cracker sidewalks, clever embellishments like Peeps Christmas trees and snowmen, sticks of gum and waffle-style pretzels as window shutters, shredded coconut as snow...

In all, there are about 40 creations by both amateur and professional baker-artists on display. Get down there and check it out. I promise it will make your spirits bright.

The Erie Canal Museum is at 318 Erie Blvd. East, Syracuse. The Gingerbread Gallery is on the museum's second floor. The museum closes at 2 p.m. Friday (New Year's Eve) and is closed New Year's Day. Sunday hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.